As a condescening moron who natters on non-stop in this simplistic comedy, Elliott doesn't just wear out his welcome, he nukes it. [14 Jan 1994]

It's so-so. As in mediocre. Even gross-out comedies need the stink of genius.

Suspense takes a vacation in sequel. [13 November 1998, p. 6E]

The two m's in 8MM could stand for "messy melodrama." [26 February 1999, Life, p.5E]

Would not even make a decent five-minute TV sketch. At any length, it smells.

Killers is dead on arrival: miscast, horribly paced and murderously uninvolving.

Too bad the movie didn't take its own advice and risk coming up with a fresh story.

Life Itself is a real downer when it comes to death: A few are so out-of-nowhere that it’s like the hipster version of the “Game of Thrones” Red Wedding.

A silly movie that's essentially a series of clichés strung together into a semblance of a movie.

An odd mix of seediness, sideburns and even scorpions, the movie nearly matches the Lisa Marie-Michael Jackson marriage for weirdness.

Zealots flip over Endgame.

Even if this movie wasn't based on a computer game, Starship Troopers' reputation would still have just shot up another 50 notches. [19 March 1999, Life, p.11E]

Though the movie trails off unsatisfyingly, it raises intriguing and candid, if unanswerable, questions about race relations and political correctness.

Memorable for being one of the most obnoxious animated movies of recent years.

Shocking is the fact that three highly regarded actors -- Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke and Billy Bob Thornton -- chose to star in this dreadful film.

Saw V is a terrible combination: grisly and tedious. Let's just call it bloody dull.

While he gets points for addressing the debate, the way in which Stein goes about it undermines his efforts to be even-handed and intellectually rigorous.

Icky and incompetent (special effects aside) in equal parts, this groaner makes 1994's "The Mask" look like something you'd study in a film graduate course at NYU.

He hasn't mastered the craft yet, but M. Night Shyamalan may be on to something with this action-movie thing.

Structured loosely enough to work in all the excrement and incest jokes necessary to seem hip these days.

Didn't work this time, David. Maybe next season.

The movie is so silly I found myself snickering a couple of times, just before slumping down in my seat in mortified embarrassment.

What snookered Slater (not to mention Donald Sutherland) into this film is a wonder, because there's not a genuine bone in it. Think the Bourne franchise meets the Bond franchise, without the wit or action.

Long on visual dazzle but short on warmth, and the humor is excessively raunchy for a family film.

The movie was postponed from 1998 and shielded from critics. (They were ot allowed to see the movie before the opening, usually a bid sign.) [15 January 1999, Life, p.8E]

That sound you hear is from jet engines gassing up, about to zoom Underclassman to DVD-ville.

This is not the Travolta of "Pulp Fiction," nor is it the Williams of "One Hour Photo." Though no animals were harmed in the making of Old Dogs, the lead actors were defanged. But like a pair of Labradors, they have a playful rapport.

The distractions are more satisfying than the romantic main course. [23 April 1999, Life, p.8E]